The Mystical Spellbook of the Imperial Wizard
The Moat The Moat crossing was actually fairly challenging, but at the same time, one of the best ones ever used on the show. The teams had to use a rope to swing out to a suspended cargo net, then climb over that and wade through the rest of the Moat, one player at a time. The teams started out even at first; in fact, the first two teams to lock in— the Green Monkeys and the Purple Parrots— did so at almost the exact same time. The Blue Barracudas took a couple more seconds, but managed to make third place, leaving it up to the other three teams to race to the finish. The second players on the Red Jaguars and Orange Iguanas were still trying to swing out to the net, while the male Silver Snake got tangled in the net while climbing down the other side. He managed to get his leg out of the net before the other teams could start climbing, however, so the Silver Snakes became the fourth and last team to go onto the next round. The Steps of Knowledge One of the greatest rulers of ancient China was Emperor Wu Ti. He loved the arts, and shadow theater was created for him. Legend has it that Wu Ti's wife, Ling Ling, passed away, and the distraught emperor summoned his wizard. "You must use your magical powers to return my wife to me!" "But that's impossible! Besides, you could marry any woman in the land! Here's Ring Ling, she's lovely! Here's Wing Ding, she's darling!" "I want Ling Ling! Return her in 24 hours or I'll do away with you!" The terrified wizard returned to his cave and consulted his mystical spellbook. "Now let's see… Spells to make boils… Spells to cure boils… Children into chickens' feet… Nope, no cure for death." But the crafty wizard came up with a plan… "Wizard, your time is up! Where is my wife?" "Here, my lord, behind this screen." The lights were dimmed, and the shadow of a beautiful woman appeared on the screen… "Ling Ling!" It wasn't really Ling Ling, but the emperor was comforted nonetheless— so much, in fact, that he promoted the wizard to Grand Vizier, a cushy desk job. His spellbook ended up in the Temple. 'The Steps of Knowledge Results' The Temple Games Coded Path to the Wizard's Cave (Sinking Steps) The first game pitted Katie against Mike in a race to find the entrance to the wizard's cave by figuring out the coded path through a bamboo swamp. The game could be seen as unfair because players could potentially get away with skipping the first platform or just retrace their opponent's steps to win, but this episode demonstrated another rule: Even if you didn't ride a sinking platform all the way to the floor, you still had to go back and start over if you found out you stepped on the wrong one. At the :39 mark, Katie took her foot off the platform in front of her just as she realized it was going to sink, but she still had to restart… hitting her shins against the starting platform as she tried to jump onto it. Nevertheless, a mistake by "Jared" on the last step meant that Katie made it across and won with four seconds remaining. Magical Ingredients (Cubbyhole Web) The second game required the other players to grab magical ingredients attached to a large cargo net and bring them back down (while this game usually featured objects hidden in the cubbyholes around the edges, that wasn't the case here). Almost immediately, Larissa dropped her first item behind the net; Jared was faster in collecting his items, but the sixth and final ingredient he had to collect fell behind the net as well; it was ruled that they could collect the ingredients that fell behind the net last, so ultimately it came down to whoever could run around the net fastest to grab the item. Predictably, Jared managed to get his last ingredient in the bin first with four seconds left, with Kirk admitting he made it look dramatic. :P Either way, the Green Monkeys, now had one Pendant, while the Silver Snakes had yet to score. Shadow Theater Screen (Big "E" Wall) The final game was explained as the team players having to "shadow each other" and escape from a giant shadow theater screen. Both teams had their share of difficulty with this one, but the Green Monkeys managed to make it through the turns a bit faster. They made it out with nine seconds left, while the Silver Snakes had one more U-bend to travel through to the finish. As a result, the Green Monkeys completely shut out the Silver Snakes and were going to go to the Temple with two full Pendants of Life. The Temple Run Most Temple Runs where one player is a noticeably better Temple Runner than the other feature the boy as the better contestant, but it looks like it was vice versa here. Jared was a little hesitant as early as the Crypt, and the skeletons' live snarls (the usual "LET GO!!" and "GET OUT OF HERE!!", which were almost always added in later along with the sound effects) as he pulled on their books probably didn't help matters. The only door that opened was the door to the Ledges; he delayed a little there, but continued onto the Pit of the Pendulum, where he knocked over the column with his bare hands after bit of confusion, opening the doors to both the Chamber of the Sacred Markers and the King's Storeroom. Jared climbed up the wall fairly swiftly, then went up into the King's Storeroom (the Chamber must have hidden the only Temple Guard they didn't encounter and probably would've only led upward, so this was a lucky decision). After having the worst luck possible in the Storeroom (not counting production defects, that is), Jared met his first Temple Guard in the Room of the Ancient Warriors. It took him a little while to realize the door had already opened, but thankfully he didn't try the other armors, so it could have been worse. The decision that definitely killed the Temple Run, however, was that after Jared put together the Silver Monkey with 1:14 on the clock, he went down into the Dark Forest rather than the Quicksand Bog— the door directly into the Room of the Secret Password didn't open. He spent roughly 15 seconds looking for a key which he didn't need, then finally went through the wall into the Bog, where Temple Guard #2 took him out with 47 seconds on the clock. Katie, however, did an impressive job of making up for lost time— although she didn't start directly in the Ledges, she used the diagonal passage from the Shrine to save time. However, time still expired just before she could climb onto the Pharaoh's Secret Passage. Had Jared gone directly into the Quicksand Bog from the Shrine, that would've saved about twenty seconds— most likely enough time for Katie to grab the Mystical Spellbook. It was a nail-biter, but disappointing in the end. 'Temple Run Results' It seemed like the Legends crew had a great time coming up with unique layouts in the third season. This temple design was one of those. The side door of the Crypt didn't open after Jared pulled all three books, so he was forced to traverse downwards into the Ledges. Here, only the bottom door leading to the Pit of the Pendulum opened. As he progressed, he was forced to push the column down with his own hands to continue. After he did this, the door to the Tomb of the Headless Kings did not open, so he climbed up the wall and took the stairway to the King's Storeroom. He then followed the top path to the Shrine. After he assembled the monkey, the door directly to the Room of the Secret Password did not open, so he took the ladder down to the Dark Forest. He had a moment of hesitation, but he smashed through the wall to the Quicksand Bog and got caught by his second temple guard. His partner, Katie, followed exactly where her partner went, and had about forty seconds to make some progress. She made a smart move and took the ladder from the Shrine to the Quicksand Bog, but time ran out before she could exit the room. It's too bad that they came up short. Notes *This episode is closely related to wizardry in the following ways. **The artifact of this episode involves the Imperial Wizard. **One of the prizes is Magical Maze which has a picture of a wizard on the box cover. *This is the third time that an item in the Top Corner was denied direct access from that room to the Shrine. The first two being The Medal of Sir Edmund Hillary and The Mush Pot Hat of Johnny Appleseed. **This was also the first time that the contestant failed to grab the artifact in time. *The second temple guards appearance makes it the first time that two temple guards appeared in that space in one season. Katie's Interview Were you a fan of the show when you tried out? If not, what made you audition? If you were, was there anything from the show that was very different than how it looked on TV? --Olmec I'd actually never even heard of it, sad as that is. Where we lived you couldn't get cable. I read about the auditions in the newspaper--the Tampa Tribune, I believe, and my mom drove us up to the Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando to try out, just for fun really. :) How did you and your partner Jared end up on the same team, and how did you get chosen to be on the Green Monkeys? --Jake It was all at random. After trying out, they mailed me a packet saying I had made it, and when/where i needed to be. I went there on that day, and they basically said, "Here's your partner, this is your team." Do you remember how Jared was as a partner? --Jake He was nice, not very talkative though; I had more fun with the girl from the Silver Snakes! And I'll probably get in trouble for this, but one thing that irritates me still about Jared... The whole show he kept telling me that I should go first on the challenges--"Oh, you can go first," "Why don't you go first on this one"--and then we get to the Temple and he says, "Well, since you got to go first on everything today, I'm going to go first at the Temple." Ugh! What can you remember of the Moat, Steps of Knowledge, and Temple Games rounds? --Ed The Moat wasn't as deep as I thought it would be. And it was warm like a bathtub. Steps of Knowledge: Before we taped that section, a lady took the remaining kids to the green room and she told us the entire story that Olmec would tell us, because when he told it, it was quick, and it was just that one time. So we got prepped for it in a way. I remember thinking that I wish our buzzer would have gone off quicker; if you watch the tape, I was like, stomping on it, because I knew those answers and didn't want to lose! Temple Games: During my bamboo thingy, at one point, I had gone down, so I was running full-speed back to the start and tried to jump back on the ledge, but tripped, only to hit my shins instead, hard, and they hurt the rest of the show! And I freaked because I thought the other guy had just won, but lucky me--he fell on the very last step, so I knew which one to take at the end to win! And the maze thing was really fun, kinda awkward being attached to someone I barely knew, but fun. What was it like running through the Temple? --The Silver Monkey Well, by the time it was my turn to go we barely had any time left, so all I was thinking was "speed!!!" It happened so fast, and I didn't get to do any challenges myself other than just run through where my partner had, so it wasn't that great for me. Was there anything particularly funny or interesting that happened backstage or was edited out? --The Ancient Warrior My partner had a crush on the Purple Parrots girl. He was flirting like crazy with her all day, and when she got cut, you would have thought his world ended. lol--woes of a 13-year-old boy, ya know? The guy who does the voice of Olmec is the little person who was in those Christmas long john silver commercials ages ago. We got to keep our shirts and sneakers afterwards. The trip we were offered was the very first time they had done a Hawaii trip, and the producers seemed really excited about it. I never saw Kirk Fogg "turn off." He was seriously that nice and smiley the entire time, he was good with all us kids. We actually had a lot of downtime in-between the different stages. I believe there were four shows filming at a time; each one would do the Moat (which had to be set up four different ways), then the Steps, etc., so while the other three shows were set up and performed, all us kids just hung out in the green room backstage. They had Nick on TV, and pizza and soda, and couches to relax on, and a room where we could change into the different clothes and stuff. They were really good to us. What were you and Kirk talking about after the Temple Run? --outer space All I can remember is him telling us that we did a good job and we tried hard, and like, mentioning something to Jared about him getting stuck in a certain spot. Just jabber, like how you see reporters chatting at the end of a newscast--basically the same thing--just random stuff to keep you from standing still and quiet like you're not interested. Do you think, in retrospect, that you and Jared might have won had you gone first instead of second? --The Ancient Warrior I'm not arrogant enough to assume that the stakes could have changed THAT dramatically, but I do think we would have done better if I started. He didn't seem to pay a lot of attention during our walk-through of the temple (a staff member walked us through showing us the rooms and what you had to do to get through each one prior to taping that section) and if you watch the tape, you can see that in, I think, two of the different rooms, he had no clue where to go or what to do for a bit, and that wasted precious time! I was two years younger than him, so I hadn't reached the stage where I cared if I looked cool (Did you see my hair? C'mon!) or that I cared what the opposite sex was thinking about me, so I actually payed attention to everything everyone said and really wanted to do my best. Have you seen or talked to Jared since your time on the show? --The Ancient Warrior No, actually, I haven't talked to him since we lost the final Temple Game! After we were done taping, they walked us back to our changing area (different for the boys/girls) and then after we changed, I saw him in the hallway where our parents met us, and he didn't say a word. I think he was irritated that I hadn't done better on the final challenge or something. No contact info--I didn't even know his last name! And he only lived in Port Charlotte, which is about 90 minutes from Tampa, so I thought it was weird. Never to be seen again, lol.... About when did it start being cool again to tell people you were on Legends? --Renegade Pancake Oh please, it's always been fun! And actually, when I first did it, I was more reluctant to tell people (I was in sixth grade) because I didn't want to sound like I was bragging. Then kids in school came in one day telling me they thought they saw me on TV, and I didn't lie about it, so then word got around school that i had been on Nick. It was pretty neat. Now, its super fun to tell people, because they remember the show with such fond memories. My best friend actually Tivo'd the show every day for almost a year so he could see the episode and it was finally on! Is there anything else worth mentioning about the show? --Ed The try-out process was so strange. Like I said we saw an ad in the paper and showed up in Orlando one day. They had us do the weirdest things, like run around a track with a rubber chicken--all kinds of offbeat obstacles. And we also took a written test, from which I still don't know how I got on the show afterwards--my sixth grade brain didn't know that Egypt was in Africa, so I answered that the Nile was in Europe! The mountain bike we won as a consolation prize was awesome! I had that thing for like 10 years and it worked great! Hawaii would have been better, but hey, I'll take what I can get ya know? :) Video Category:Season 3 Category:Green Monkeys Category:Layout XV Category:Loss Category:Team Run Category:Ran out of time Category:Artifacts Hidden in The Top Corner